Popular with conservatives, Gingrich is a television commentator and the author of nineteen books including 11 fiction and non-fiction New York Times best-sellers.

Under his leadership, Congress passed welfare reform, passed the first balanced budget in a generation, and passed the first tax cut in sixteen years. In addition, the Congress restored funding to strengthen defense and intelligence capabilities, an action later lauded by the bipartisan 9/11 Commission.

In 2011, Gingrich entered the race for the 2012 Republican presidential monination but withdrew on May 2, 2012, having secured primary victories only in South Carolina and Georgia, which he had represented in Congress. Had he remained in the contest, he may have drawn the support of Conservapedia (see Gingrich Administration). Voters and delegates instead chose the RINOMitt Romney as the nominee.

Speakership

All ten items in the Contract With America were brought to a vote in the U.S. House in the first 100 days (the promise was to bring them to a vote). Nine of the ten items passed the House. The sole exception was term limits which received a plurality but required a two-thirds majority as a Constitutional Amendment.

Committee Chairmen were term-limited as was the Speakership.

The Legislative branch was cut including the Speaker's office. Also reduced were committee sizes. Unnecessary perks like the House barbershop, shoeshine and ice service were eliminated.

The Congress was forced to live under the same laws as the rest of the land - OSHA, disabilities, workplace laws, members, staff etc.

A big six accounting firm audited the U.S. House's finances for the first time in history.

The Budget was balanced for the first time in a generation. When Time Magazine named Gingrich their Man of the Year in 1995, they said that because of Newt a balanced budget was no longer a question of if, but when.

Tax rates were cut for the first time in 17 years. Included were a lowering of the capital gains tax rate, a $500 per child tax credit and new tax credits for tuition to college and voc-tech schools. The cap gains tax actually ended being scored as a revenue increase, a shift in tax policy debate due to Gingrich's success.

Military spending increased for the first time in over 10 years including funding for a national missile defense.

In response to the removal of former Democratic Speaker Jim Wright on ethical violations, Reps. David Bonior and Nancy Pelosi filed a list of alleged ethics charges against Gingrich in 1997. Gingrich reimbursed the committee $300,000 for investigative costs after failing to meet full disclosure requirements about a college class he was teaching at a community college in Georgia. A formal IRS investigation in 1999 exonerated Gingrich and found that the course was intended to educate students about American government and society.<ref>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204661604577185030808355916.html?mod=googlenews_wsj</ref>

Issues

Quotes

“There is no attack on American culture more deadly and more historically dishonest than the secular effort to drive God out of America's public life.”

“All free people stand on Reagan's shoulders. His principled policies proved that free markets create wealth, that the rule of law sustains freedom, and that all people everywhere deserve the right to dream, to pursue their dreams, and to govern themselves.”

“The idea that a congressman would be tainted by accepting money from private industry or private sources is essentially a socialist argument.”

If Thomas Edison invented electric light today, Dan Rather would report it on CBS News as “candle making industry threatened”.”

“It is impossible to maintain civilization with 12-year-olds having babies, with 15-year-olds killing each other, with 17-year-olds dying of AIDS and with 18-year-olds getting diplomas they can't read”

Personal Life

Gingrich was born into a single-parent household with his mother, after his biological father abandoned the family. Robert Gingrich, a retired army officer, married Gingrich's mother and adopted him. <ref>http://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/21/us/robert-b-gingrich-speaker-s-father-71.html</ref> He has been married three times. His first wife, Jackie Battley, was his geometry teacher while he was in high school. They began their relationship when he was 16 years old, and married in 1962 after he graduated.<ref name=“poli”>Newt Gingrich: Marital Affairs poligu.com, retrieved January 22, 2012.</ref> The couple had two daughters, and divorced in 1981. Liberal and mainstream media sources have perpetuated a myth for decades Jackie was served with divorce papers “on her deatbed,” however, she is very much alive. Only in December, 2011, did FactCheck.org research and correct some of the smears.<ref>http://www.factcheck.org/2011/12/the-gingrich-divorce-myth/</ref>

Gingrich married Ginther in 1981. The couple separated in 1988, reconciled in 1994, and later divorced in 1999. He began his relationship with Callista Bisek, a Congressional aide and his future third wife, in 1993 while he was still married to Ginther.<ref>http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1999-11-11/news/9911110139_1_callista-bisek-georgia-republican-house-speaker-newt-gingrich</ref> In response to inquiries Gingrich publicly admitted to having an extra-marital relationship. “The honest answer is yes,” Gingrich said in an interview with Focus on the Family founder James Dobson. “There are times that I have fallen short of my own standards. There's certainly times when I've fallen short of God's standards.” Gingrich contrasted owning up to his shortcomings with President Clinton's perjury and criminal offenses, “The President of the United States got in trouble for committing a felony in front of a sitting federal judge,” the former Georgia congressman said of Clinton's 1998 House impeachment on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. “I drew a line in my mind that said, 'Even though I run the risk of being deeply embarrassed, and even though at a purely personal level I am not rendering judgment on another human being, as a leader of the government trying to uphold the rule of law, I have no choice except to move forward and say that you cannot accept … perjury in your highest officials.” <ref>://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1597666,00.html?cnn=yes</ref>